Early Learning

Hurray for Flag Day!

Every year on June 14 we celebrate National Flag Day to commemorate the day when the Stars and Stripes was adopted as the official flag of the United States in 1777. Celebrate this event with your children by offering some of these fun activities!

Find Flags: Walk around the neighborhood and see how many flags you can find. You may see flags at schools, the post office, businesses, or displayed in yards. Take pictures of all the flags you find and create a display in your room.

Examine a Flag: Look closely at a flag with the children. What colors do they see? Count the stripes together. Explain that when our country began, there were 13 colonies that became the first states. The thirteen stripes represent the original colonies. Now we have 50 states. There is a star for each state.

Celebrate with Song: Offer the children small flags to wave as they sing the song below. You can also sing any familiar patriotic songs, such as “Yankee Doodle” or “America the Beautiful.”

Red, White, and Blue Tossing Game: Collect some round cans with lids, such as those from nuts or other snack foods. Wrap some cans in white paper, some in red paper, and some in blue paper. Stack the cans. Invite the children to stand facing the cans and take turns tossing balls or beanbags. How many cans fall down? What colors fall?

Red, White, and Beautiful Art: Gather a variety of red and white collage materials. You might include tissue paper, streamers, flag stickers, star stickers, bits or ribbon and yarn, or fabric trim. Invite the children to glue the materials to blue paper in any way they like.

Patriotic Parfaits: Invite the children to help you create red, white, and blue parfaits. Follow these steps.

Place a packet of white chocolate instant pudding mix (4-serving size) in a quart-size container with a tight-fitting lid. Add 2 cups of milk and fasten the lid securely. Let the children take turns shaking the container until the pudding is well mixed. Place in the refrigerator while you prepare the other ingredients. Repeat as necessary to make enough servings for your group.

Use dull plastic knives to cut slices of angel food cake into small pieces. Another option would be to tear the cake into pieces using clean hands.

Wash fresh blueberries and remove any stems.

Wash fresh strawberries. Remove the caps and use dull plastic knives to cut them into small pieces.

For each serving, place a layer of angel food cake pieces in the bottom of a clear plastic cup. Top with a spoonful of pudding and then a spoonful of blueberries. Repeat the layers of cake and pudding and then top with strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve.